Long time no blog! Although I haven’t posting on here much, I have been crafting a lot and streaming it to Twitch. My streaming schedule is not consistent yet but I do post on my social media (Instagram Stories and Twitter) when I am live!

Now onto the dress! After making a shirred dress * last fall, I knew I wanted to make many more dresses of this style. When the perfect fabric and thread came along, I knew I just had to make this dress! I will say my original plan was to make an exact copy of the dress I sewed up in October. However, I made a little error when ordering the fabric and had to scrap that plan. I am overall super happy with the end result and would 100% sew this version again! Would it not be a super cute dress to wear to a picnic?

What I used

• Aurifil 40 WT in 1231 (Received in my Artisan Bundle)

• Shirring Elastic

• 1.5m of Crinkle Cotton Check from Needlework in Lime Green

• McCall’s M7946 in sizes 4-12

What I Did

For my dress, I did a couple of modifications to the McCall’s M7946 pattern. I blended view C and D together and I also omitted the bias casings in the pattern. For my measurements, I cut out the size 12 pieces of the versions I needed.**

Before beginning to shirr the front and back bodice, I finished the top of the body pieces by folding them in 1/4 inch and then folding it another 1/4 inch so that the raw edge was covered. I mark on my fabric the where the final bias casing should be; then I shirr the back and front piece separately to the marked waistline. (I shirr the pieces individually before assembling the dress) I join the back and front pieces and then I set them aside.

To gather my bottom tier, I used a snazzy trick Amalia of Kindred Red shared in her instagram stories. The trick is to sew the gathers with the shirring elastic which will cause the fabric to gather. That is the only modification I made to the bottom tier instructions. Next, Iconnect the upper dress section to the bottom tier, add the straps and Voilà! A finished shirred dress perfect from summer!

[Insert Clever Transition] I really just wanted to add my favourite photo from when I was trying to take photos of myself in my craft room. I title this “When you want to show the whole outfit but the camera is too close”. I’m hoping the next post will be very soon! Until next time.

Notes

*None of the links in this post are affiliate links

** Note that according to the pattern sizing I would be in between 12 and 14 but I wasn’t going to buy both sizing schemes. This is the reason I usually prefer sewing patterns from Independent designers. It is usually one price for all of the sizes.